Thursday, January 22, 2009

Exciting moments ………….


Alligator

Living in a remote kampong is always dull, nothing much to see, nothing much to hear, nothing much to do … if you are ‘blind’ and ‘deaf’ to nature and if you are the lazy type. But to those who are proactive, like nature and want to improve life without the hustle and bustle of towns/cities, remote country living is best. However Malaysians I believe like the town/city life better, probably because their early ancestors were mostly the rural folks. The Malays want change.

In all my years in the kampong there were very few exciting moments that I have experienced, or seen or heard. Life just went on day to day, weeks to weeks, months to months and year to year, …….. sounds very boring really. Its no wonder that many of the kampong folks seems very lethargic, moving about slowly, and do not seem to look forward to challenges and excitement. Are they happy as they are? I have no ready answers to that.

There were exciting time though in the old days when the Sultan used to come to the kampong annually (with dancing girls), when the District Office staff came to collect land revenue (“kutip hasil” they used to say) once a year, when the Information Department came to show their almost monthly propaganda films (in an open field), when the ‘badits ‘ used to come to the kampong to shoot at the penghulu’s house at night (and no one from the kampong got hurt or killed), when the Gurkha soldiers used to visit the kampong on their routine anti Communist drives (they always seemed to be at a ready to fight) and when the white British Army conscript boys came once in a while visit to the kampong and they gave us their rations biscuits (could have been dog’s biscuits for all we knew then but we were very happy and pleased to receive those ration biscuits).

Maybe there were other occasions when we could have called them exciting moments. Such as the visits of Tun Abd Razak (a Dato' then) when he was a Politician, a Minister, a Deputy Prime Minister and an Acting Prime Minster of Malaysia. He used to visit the kampong quite often when he was alive.........he had friends in the kampong. Now the kampong is only visited by the small fishes of the local politic (only at near Election time, but the kampong folks fell so honoured anyway, a misplaced feeling).

For me these two incidents were the exciting moments in the kampong life. One was when an alligator decided to float itself, swimming happily for a few days at the mouth of Sungei Chalang (a small river in the kampong). That was about in 1950. Everybody from the kampong went there, all wanting to see the alligator (Malay = buaya). In those days almost every other man had a shotgun, so many wanted to shoot the alligator but was prevented from doing so by the elders in the kampong. If they did that the elders said they could bring bad luck to the kampong (which nobody wanted then or even now), though a few of the ‘naughty’ men threw sticks and stone at the alligator. After a few days the alligator just dived and left.

The other exciting incident was when the kampong folks had to dig out a Y-shaped gate to the Malay School then. Again about the year 1950. The District Officer, who was a well liked man wanted to visit the Malay School, which was then (and still is) one of the rural school in the District. It so happened that this District Officer was a very fat man with a pear-shaped body. On arriving at the gate, which was then very near to the Malay School, he could not manoeuvre himself through the gate. The gate was too small for his pear-shaped fat body though to the thinner and slimmer kampong rural folks, they pass that way everyday with no problem. The gate was made that way to prevent buffaloes (Malay = kerbaus) from entering the area, (the path went through a bund in the kampong padi fields), kerbaus body has rounded solid horizontal shape. In the end the kampong folks had to dig out the gate to let the District Officer through. (They put back the gate after his visit).

Exciting moments for a dull kampong........... a long time ago.


Lipat Kajang people (or decendents) are encouraged to participate& contribute (Orang Lipat Kajang, atau keturunan, di jemput memberi sumbangan idea)

13 comments:

  1. As a kid in the 60s, this place is a big playground for me.My (dad)house in Paya Baru, near empang semin(concrete water lock)& my maternal grandma lived in Tanjung Perian. Lastik burung, tangkap ikan,buat senapang buloh,mandi sungai pahang,panjat pokok buah,accompany my grandma to Pekan Sari in Kerdau, cari buah Kuran, menuba ikan bersama Sultan Pahang? Those are still in my mind though a bit hazy. Bore? Never. Maybe in economic sense, we're lacking. The vision, leadership,commitment & what not are lacking. Maybe local Otai will resist if LK born but living elsewhere, initiate something that may change the traditional structure. Maybe by opening new channel for kampong produce will help to create a bigger economic pie that everybody can participate.
    Lipat Kajang has a very good resources. The people born in LK will always have a soft spot for this place. All we have to do is to collect data on these people & ask how they can help LK. Get a get together, maybe put an advert in paper, do a makan2 & distribute membership forms.

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  2. Salam,thank you for your support. You have ideas, I am sure.
    About the meeting, I plan for one in Jun 2009, itu pun kalau sempat ndak organise. susah jugak urusan ni. I have asked Sirad Marzuki to see what he can do. If you are n KL, maybe you may like to mail him on this blog and meet up with him. All hands and all help are welcome for the good of Lipat Kajang.

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  3. w'kum salam azman,
    awok anak jantan askar ke?
    cucu Aki Latif? anak sdr Hamid?

    someone had asked us all to introduce ourselves, so that we can correctly address each other - adik abang kon awok bro member pakuda pakngah pakcik aki tok wan dan sebagainya

    we all had agreed to make known who we are
    we're going to meet and see one another come june, we must support the move to organise the big "get together" scheduled for june

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  4. Wkms. Abang2 semua. Harap kita semua dikurniakan kesihatan yg baik.Teramat baik lah cadangan tu, semopga kita bole refresh balik image
    yg dah lame tak bersua. Ya benar. Anak Jantan askar, anak sedara Cikgu Jak. Currently live in PJ.Nak buat dimana acara teh tarik tu?

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  5. saya Pak Ngah kepada awak. ayah awak abang kepada saya. aki latiff awak anak saudara benar wan saya.
    cik gu jak dan weh jebah tu dua pupu saya, sebelah tok saya.
    emak awak (arwah) classmate saya di SK LK.
    selau jugak jumpa ayah awak di mesjid temerloh masa waktu zohor.

    teh tarik? cadang di lipat kajang kalau di izinkan Allah pada bulan Jun 2009. sirad marzuki ketua perancangnya. doakan berjaya.

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  6. Assm Pa Ngah. tk for the info. At least I get to know my family tree & people I only heard about.

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  7. man, want to know who am i ?
    ........aka "Kas Mahmood"

    just to say it briefly here,
    abang jak (cigu razak) and weh jebah (ngah jebah) are my cousins, just like their connection with mylias (yunus)
    ngah jebah's father and my mother, adik beradik, she's even closer

    and i know your late mother is abang jak's sister

    as for my father's connections with your family, we can talk about that when we meet, your father knows it all

    the problem is we've never met, and we come from different generations, hence we all are just only beginning to know one another, i lived in the kampong only until darjah 3 SKLK (9 years old) and then left for boarding school, and so on...till now

    where does that put you and me?

    all abang jak's children call me, "pak uda" or "pok de" and they all had been v close to me

    when senah's son wanted to get married in kelana jaya, she came to me for help...and of course i could not decline

    so are we aliens to one another, mylias, you, me and all of us?

    as for teh tarik, whenever you feel like sitting for teh tarik or ali cafe' with me, just e mail me, jaguhbugis@yahoo
    i have lived in pj for more than 30years, and still "partly" live in pj (my wife's family side)
    just fix the time place anywhere, and i'll come
    if you want to meet another anak Kg LKP jati, just go to MBPJ (majlis bandaraya petaling jaya) (jabatan pembangunan persekitaran) @ Menara MBPJ and ask for dr ghalib...and thru him you can also get to me, get what i mean

    hope to see you soon, ber borak2
    salam

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  8. can you make out from the image (photo - my photo) attached?

    that's me, a hand-drawn image, by a japanese artist, drawn while i posed for him, on top of tokyo tower, tokyo japan back in 1981

    i was there few months for some technical training in yokohama

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  9. Assm. Will call you ayah kas, cos not sure what ayah that will be. You do look handsome even in painting. Ofcourse I excited to know my roots.Will do. May be I catchup with you this weekend if you're free & I will bring a drawing paper to sketch the tree? You stay in Kelana Jaya?

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  10. in case anyone wanting to contact Shamsuddin, his e-mail address is samsudin_spectrum@yahoo.com

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  11. w'kum salam
    i left a comment under posting "A Different Name" above, about My Name, what's in a name?

    my late father was i must say rather close to your Aki Latif, somehow they both must be strongly connected

    i am ok any day or night if you want to meet, feel free, if i'm around that is, just e mail me
    jaguhbugis@yahoo.com
    i can even e-mail you my hp number

    i go down to jb very often,
    next weekend, not available
    salam

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  12. abang mylias, TQ for sudin's e mail addr, i hv his hp no anyway

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  13. azman,
    a while ago i said, "my late father was i must say rather close to your Aki Latif, somehow they both must be strongly connected"

    p/s forgot to mention earlier

    on the reverse side, your late maternal grandmother who lived in tg perian and my late father were/are cousins, both their fathers adik beradik
    is it becoming clearer?
    salam

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